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Eon
2009-08-17, 09:46 PM
Well earlier we were playing a one shot evil campaign in dnd 4.0 because the dm forgot the character sheets. Anyway I was a swordmage, we had a cleric and a paladin. we were all level 3. We were supposed to take over the world so we started with a small very unlucky town. I decided to take over the empire through real estate. So I decided to get a "loan" which involved my longsword and an intimidate check. I got it and bought a house. Then the cleric in our group got arrested for killing a barkeeper and eventually escaped with the help of his god. (ask robanybody for the details on that one, he was the dm) So I decided to run an inn for some income to help me buy more real estate. I went to the mayor and diplomatically got a loan for enough to start the Freddy the Wonder Lizard Inn. it was made a little bit after the paladin assasinated the mayor and took over. He then corrupted the well so everyone who drank the water would worship the god that tasked us to taking over the empire. After that it was time to go so he pretty much said that since all the paladin had to do to take over the world was to pour some of that potion into the well of any town we took over the world. and went from level 3 to level 20 for it.


So, what's your favorite way to take over the world in roleplaying games?

p.s. my plan to slowly take over the world through real estate wasn't completed :smallfrown:

Yukitsu
2009-08-17, 09:53 PM
My character became an epic baelnorn, and helped everyone have guaranteed food, equality, free medical care, law enforcement and protection from invading armies so long as they didn't kill eachother, and worked to better eachothers lives. Of course, since he was the one who did everything, and since he could stop at any given moment, people made him a high up in the government, even though it was for the most part constitutional.

He then went around asking all the common plebs if they wanted to join his communist paradise, and they all agreed. The upper crust starved within a year, and were forced to join up too.

*As a note, when I say epic, I mean my character leveled based on age, instead of experience, and got caught in a time loop by accident epic.

Kallisti
2009-08-17, 09:57 PM
A lich, taking over the world thruogh compound interest.

You give someone a loan. Many, many, many someones.

You wait.

After a few centuries, due to the original terms of the contract, their descendants now owe you the loaned money, plus a few centuries of interest. Hire some thugs, and collect. Those who can't pay can become your indentured slaves until they've worked off the debt.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Hey, look! You own everybody!

Sir Homeslice
2009-08-17, 10:05 PM
My plan involves seven hundred changelings, seven hundred snazzy hats, and an act good enough to steal the hearts of everyone who watches our show.

We'll dominate the world with dance!

Eon
2009-08-17, 10:05 PM
A lich, taking over the world thruogh compound interest.

You give someone a loan. Many, many, many someones.

You wait.

After a few centuries, due to the original terms of the contract, their descendants now owe you the loaned money, plus a few centuries of interest. Hire some thugs, and collect. Those who can't pay can become your indentured slaves until they've worked off the debt.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Hey, look! You own everybody!

that is pure awesome.

Elfin
2009-08-17, 10:22 PM
Pure awesome indeed.

Gnorman
2009-08-17, 10:24 PM
Pure awesome indeed.

Except what if they just don't have the money? Hard to collect what doesn't exist.

EDIT: Erm. Ahem. Yes. Reading skills. Indentured servitude.

Oh ho ho... what if you made them... your thugs... for the next round of collections? And then they go out and... collect/recruit five more... and then they go out and recruit - It's like a pyramid scheme, with you at the top and nobody makes any money!

Yukitsu
2009-08-17, 10:27 PM
This is exactly why I know the legal process to disinherit myself.

Strawman
2009-08-17, 10:27 PM
The collecting loan method is nice, but eventually you'll run into someone who took too many levels in awesome. And then you're on the wrong side of a boss fight.

I prefer the method where everyone thinks that you're their friend, their savior. Start a civil war by making it look like your political rival stole a valuable cultural artifact. Then after he is chased out of town, go in the general direction he left. Come back soon with the artifact that you "wrested from his hands." Bam, instant city leader.

But before you get the artifact, use the chaos of the civil war to loot like crazy.

EmperorSarda
2009-08-17, 11:20 PM
Klondike Bars.

You produce them in your world, with the same type of advertising that is given the Klondike Bars in our world, making it a renown saying "What would you do for a Klondike bar?" Give it a few years to be extremely popular throughout the world then fake an accident that "depletes" supplies. You hoard the Klondikes and now any that are available are heavily sought after. Start an advertising campaign where you to "revitalize" the company, but now the Klondike bars have a gaeas or something similar to that in them that activates only upon a certain phrase, which is part of your "revitalization" ad campaign.

With that you travel town to town, reintroducing them, but the "advertisement catch" is that what they would do for a Klondike bar is let your party take over the world. If they agree, the magic takes effect, which you can exploit when everyone has agreed to let you conquer the world all for a Klondike Bar.

Cyrano
2009-08-17, 11:26 PM
Oh ho ho... what if you made them... your thugs... for the next round of collections? And then they go out and... collect/recruit five more... and then they go out and recruit - It's like a pyramid scheme, with you at the top and nobody makes any money!

Yup, just like a pyramid scheme.

Milskidasith
2009-08-17, 11:36 PM
The only problem with the lich thing is that you are obviously evil, and you *probably* don't even have the legal rights to collect from peoples descendants. Not to mention the fact that people might, you know, pay off the loans; any adventurer is going to gain money at such an exponential rate your loans would have to have interest so high to actually keep them from paying it would take a DC -2 wisdom check to actually take it.

So you have to give out exceedingly terrible loans to actually cause people to become indebted to you instead of just really frigging strong and able to kill the obviously evil Lich loan shark, and you would attract so much negative attention you'd be killed off. Not exactly a good thing.

AslanCross
2009-08-18, 01:58 AM
I can already predict someone soon saying "Mindrape them all and sort them out by height."

Oh wait, I said it already.

Anyway, during a high-level one-shot, we defeated a simulacrum of Acererak in his tower on the Negative Energy Plane. The tower was basically a giant negative energy processor that the lich was using to gain demilichdom, but it had alternative settings to process positive energy instead.

Now one of my party members, a ranger, had a lot of money leftover from his gear purchasing. I told him to use the remainder to buy chickens.

After we killed the lich and cleaned out the rest of the tower, he used the tower's systems to infuse the chickens with positive energy.

The end result was giant chickens and a global fast-food chain.

Coming up with a mercantile power that can rival the Dragonmarked houses in Eberron in the course of ONE ADVENTURE is pretty awesome.

Altima
2009-08-18, 02:21 AM
Dead people don't complain very much.

Destruction of the major population centers by smuggling in dozens or hundreds of wights into the slums (who then make more wights, and more and more and more...)

Honestly, who wants to rule the world? Everyone will be gunning for your head, your stuff... It's all one massive headache.

Eon
2009-08-18, 12:11 PM
Dead people don't complain very much.

Destruction of the major population centers by smuggling in dozens or hundreds of wights into the slums (who then make more wights, and more and more and more...)

Honestly, who wants to rule the world? Everyone will be gunning for your head, your stuff... It's all one massive headache.

you have a point... but it would still be fun...

Sinfire Titan
2009-08-18, 01:05 PM
Not every plane of existence is an Easily Conquered World (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EasilyConqueredWorld), but if I want to take over, the first thing to do is establish who is who. Gather information on the ones in charge and the ones who protect them, what deity or ideal is worshiped most commonly, what situation their economy is in, crime rates, etc.

Once that's established, I design a plan for each individual area I intend to conquer. I then go about it one of two ways.

1: If the area is corrupted, I try a diplomatic approach. During the diplomacy, I establish who is boss through some means, be it by eliminating the biggest threat through force or subduing my rivals' ability to react to my plans. If the diplomacy fails, kill them all and proceed to Coup the place. Lawful Evil societies are more likely to bargain with me, and if the bargain is in their best interest it makes taking over that much easier. I then deal with attempts to overthrow me on a case-by-case basis by establishing two identities. The first ID is the face they see most often, and is viewed as a subordinate to the "real leader". That one is the one I try to establish as the "voice" of the overlord, and someone who would be willing to sell my character out. It would actually be me in disguise. The second would be the "overlord"; rarely ever seen in public, and when he does come out it becomes a spectacle for the commoners and my enemies. My actual defenses are going to vary based on how well the diplomacy went. Leadership will be involved.

2: If the area is good or neutral, establish a rebellion through some way. Maybe depose the current rulers and let the squabble fight amongst themselves for a while. Or frame their current leader through some means, such as possessing him myself or switching places with him while he is on a trip of some kind. Establish one or more of the groups as the "bad guy", when none of them are actually responsible for anything other than attempting to take control once their original leader is disposed of.

Once the rebellion is established, become a weapons/Intel dealer for two or more of the sides. Manipulate the information, allowing them to weaken each other in the process while they conquer major locations for me. Then manipulate the information and secretly wipe out one of the major competitors for the crown. The exact means can be virtually anything, but something that leaves a mark in their defenses is mandatory. Even if this action fails, the revelation of another faction will throw things into a loop.

Once word gets around of what happened, establish another faction to pose as the "good guys". This one will be my personal group of Followers and Cohorts. They will be stated out as I specify, and utterly loyal to my. I will act as an unseen lord for that group, though the higher ups will know that the actual rebellion is a front for funding.

Personally wipe out one of the leaders to another group using Scry and Die or a similar tactic. Something they can't defend against. Make it look like whatever attacked them was the false faction that attacked before. Establish them as a clear threat.

Ally myself with the remains of that group and the other faction by making the false faction responsible for the entire rebellion, and then lure them into fighting the false faction. Without revealing who I really am, reveal the being in charge of the false faction. Wipe out all but my own group, and then have the false faction win.

Proceed to establish the false faction as the ultimate villain, and let heroes accumulate into a faction of their own. Create a duplicate of myself so I can fake the death of the false faction's leader. Kill the false faction and capture the survivors. Reveal myself as the leader of the "good guys".

None of this is to be recorded on any surface other than my own mind using ranks in Autohypnosis. Trace evidence of my puppetry is to be flung to another plane of existence entirely.

Have the false faction rise up again, and then thrash it personally. Establish the pecking order, and the illusion that my character is a hero.

Depending on how I go about the 2nd option, it should be nearly impossible to pin the alignment on my character. Conquering a good-aligned faction is never easy, but making it a convoluted mess like the above would keep them on their toes and make it easy to manipulate the entire thing.

I prefer the 1st option as it will be easier to provide resources for that option, but either one can work.

Johel
2009-08-18, 02:35 PM
The only problem with the lich thing is that you are obviously evil, and you *probably* don't even have the legal rights to collect from peoples descendants. Not to mention the fact that people might, you know, pay off the loans; any adventurer is going to gain money at such an exponential rate your loans would have to have interest so high to actually keep them from paying it would take a DC -2 wisdom check to actually take it.


1. Make sure you are really immortal (I know, Lich, but still...)
2. Hire Dominate a low-level Bard
3. Have him cast Undetectable Alignment on yourself
4. Use the Bard to set a guild, a company, a trust or whatever is legally recognized as entitled to collect loans while still being the property of people.
5. Be the Man Behind the Man
6. When the Bard grow old, have him sell the guild to another Bard.
7. Repeat process from point 2.

That's for the "I need legal face" thing. You ? You find yourself a hat of disguise or something that can hide your undead nature. And you play the clerc, bouncer, whatever capital but low-profile rank you need.

My own scheme :
Be a wizard
I could stop at that point but let's say I want to go details.
Become at least 20th level
Oh, really ? Well, that's either that or be born powerful so...
Learn Dominate Person (or Mind Rape) and Simulacrum.
Very useful
Become a lich
...what ? We need time. Mortals lack that kind of thing !!
Find yourself some Bard-bitch
Because Undetectable Alignment is your friend.
Open a "good" wizard guild.
Insure a regular supply of mid-level wizards for yourself.
Dominate (or Mind Rape) any 11th level wizard you can get your hands on.
You'll need them for... raw material purpose.
Teach Simulacrum to your slaves.
You see what I want, right ?

The Final Rush :
Have your slaves create copies of yourself through simulacrums.
They'll provide the XP (raw material :smallamused:)
You'll provide the gold and stuff (the sharkloan guild or dragonhoard robbery, your choice).
Because you are immortal, so will be your simulacrums.
Wait until you get an army of 10th level undead wizards at your command.
Send them burn a few towns, animate the deads, have fun.
Sure, it can take a few centuries but you aren't in a hurry.

AshDesert
2009-08-18, 03:37 PM
In Good-aligned kingdoms, pose as a hero to scrap your way through the low levels until you get Leadership. Then keep being a hero until you think the king/queen will call on you personally when they have a problem. Have your Minions/Cohorts start killing off heirs left and right. The king will call you to solve the problem. Act like you're carrying on an investigation while heirs keep dying. Once the last heir in the will dies, kill the king, then "find" a "will" that names you as heir. Once you're king, kill off all of your Minions/Cohorts after a big, dramatic revenge-swearing.

But oh, you're not done yet:smallamused:. Build up your Minions and Cohorts, even more powerful than the last, and declare martial law. Call all of your advisers and courtiers corrupt and evil, and execute just about anyone who could realistically oppose you. Don't get overconfident, that's such a dreadfully common and cliched pitfall. Kill off all the 1st level paladins and clerics, maybe even a few Fighters to boot.

And there you go, if you're careful about, and don't over-the-top-French-Revolution-crazy with your executions, you can rile up some real support. Plus, commoners are dreadfully dull, Mass Charm Person can go a LONG way on people with effectively 0 Will Save:smallwink:.

Myshlaevsky
2009-08-18, 03:40 PM
The lich thing makes me thing of an adventure wherein the PC's are hired to protect a bank. They kill the interlopers, only to find out they were a good-aligned adventuring party out to steal the bank's holdings and redistribute them to the poor. The bank is actually being managed by a lich obsessed with controlling world finances.

Ravens_cry
2009-08-18, 03:57 PM
The lich thing makes me thing of an adventure wherein the PC's are hired to protect a bank. They kill the interlopers, only to find out they were a good-aligned adventuring party out to steal the bank's holdings and redistribute them to the poor. The bank is actually being managed by a lich obsessed on controlling world finances.
As an added twist, the Lich's machinations are the only thing stopping all the ancient gold and other liquid assets adventurers keep introducing into the economy from causing hyperinflation.:smallamused:

Johel
2009-08-18, 04:56 PM
As an added twist, the Lich's machinations are the only thing stopping all the ancient gold and other liquid assets adventurers keep introducing into the economy from causing hyperinflation.:smallamused:

Or maybe it DOES cause further inflation.

"-Hey you !! Peasant boy !! How much for that bread ?"
"-2 copper pieces, my good sir !!"
"-Here comes 1 gold piece from Uncle Lichy. By the way, think about saving some for your old days. Have you heard about the Necronomicon Retirement Plan ?"
"-...what ?"
"-Let's take a minute here..."

And so, by playing on everybody's trust into the banking system (which was SUPPOSED to keep your money safe) while also buying things at ridiculously high price, Uncle Lichy started a cycle of quickly inflating prices. Bread became so costly that people actually hoarded it rather than gold. The carefully spared treasures of lords and kings was suddenly worthless as peasants were full of gold, which went back to the bank for "retirement saving". To pay the army's wages became impossible, let alone equipped it. Merchants from every other countries flooded the place because foreign cheap goods could be sold up to ten times their value and still be a good deal for the locals.
Thiefs and intelligent monsters camped in the nearby wilderness, setting camps for a season, just the time to rob the local "poors" before going back home and be treated like kings.
As a result, low-level adventurers flooded the place because the "sword for hire" business really needed some underqualified idiots ready to take insane risk for "low wages" (low being still two times higher than your average adventurer's reward).

Eventually, the Bank makes notes "because it's safer and more practicle". In truth, most gold has been sucked out of the country by merchants, adventurers and thiefs and it's the only way for the lich to keep controlling the economy. Until one day, somebody try to exchange a note for gold and...

"-Sorry !! No more gold. "
*CRASH !!!!*

Sir Dar
2009-08-18, 05:06 PM
How to take over the world or Die trying .


step one:Lrean the art of necromancer from your master.

step 2: Flee from the town the wizards destroy and kill your master at. For they think necromancer magic is evil.This is where you strat your hate for the wizards of [lets call them wizards of the silver citys]the silver citys.


3:hide some where safe from the eye of the wizards. There you train and wait for the day you can pay back the wizards.


4:You at last hear about a kingdom who king die in battle to demons.The ruler of the kingdom for now is the queen.rebels are rising up to overthrow the queen.This is where you pay your part.Rise the dead for a small army. Go to the kingdom offen your magic aid. You see some rebels attacking the caslte where the queen is at. Deal with the rebels.Then offen your aid to the queen. Thanks to your magic you can bring the dead king back but you need the help of 4 powerfull magic items witch are being held by wizards of the silver citys.earn the queens trust, then use it to start war. see 5.

5:Talk the queen in to a war with the wizards of the silver city.Take from them The magic items you need to make your self more powerfull.Find the ruins of the town where you lrean necromancer and master was slayed.Rebuild it as a stronghold and place to lrean the arts of necromancerly.


6:Once you get the wand of necromancer. Use its powers to curse the wizards town .truning them in to a place for your hordes of undead to live.

7:Once all magic items are yours head to the kings resting place. use the magic items to a rise the king a new as a vampire lord.

8:Rebels have been seen fleeing to elf lands long allys of the kingdom.Use this to strat a war with the elves. Use the new vampire lord king to lead your armys vs the elves.

9:The queen should now think you are the only hope if the kingdom is to last.now you should be able to do any thing in the kingdom you want. IF queen finds out your just using her. Kill her,use your undead to become king should any dear try to fight you.


10:Watch as these you trained in necromancer lead your undead armys. if strating to take over the world goes badly lead the armys your self.or if things go well. Strat looking for more magic items that will make you more powerfull.

11:With your nearly endless armys no one should be able to stop you, now.


12:The world is yours full of undead but its yours.


Nothing beats taking over the world with undead.

AshDesert
2009-08-18, 05:09 PM
Or maybe it DOES cause further inflation.

"-Hey you !! Peasant boy !! How much for that bread ?"
"-2 copper pieces, my good sir !!"
"-Here comes 1 gold piece from Uncle Lichy. By the way, think about saving some for your old days. Have you heard about the Necronomicon Retirement Plan ?"
"-...what ?"
"-Let's take a minute here..."

And so, by playing on everybody's trust into the banking system (which was SUPPOSED to keep your money safe) while also buying things at ridiculously high price, Uncle Lichy started a cycle of quickly inflating prices. Bread became so costly that people actually hoarded it rather than gold. The carefully spared treasures of lords and kings was suddenly worthless as peasants were full of gold, which went back to the bank for "retirement saving". To pay the army's wages became impossible, let alone equipped it. Merchants from every other countries flooded the place because foreign cheap goods could be sold up to ten times their value and still be a good deal for the locals.
Thiefs and intelligent monsters camped in the nearby wilderness, setting camps for a season, just the time to rob the local "poors" before going back home and be treated like kings.
As a result, low-level adventurers flooded the place because the "sword for hire" business really needed some underqualified idiots ready to take insane risk for "low wages" (low being still two times higher than your average adventurer's reward).

Eventually, the Bank makes notes "because it's safer and more practicle". In truth, most gold has been sucked out of the country by merchants, adventurers and thiefs and it's the only way for the lich to keep controlling the economy. Until one day, somebody try to exchange a note for gold and...

"-Sorry !! No more gold. "
*CRASH !!!!*

Must...resist...urge...to...reference...RL...on... forums. Ah, there we go. Anyway, after seeing what happened to that kingdom, I'm pretty sure other places would try to keep tabs on that sort of spending for basic amenities, which pretty much keeps that plan from becoming a world domination plan so much as a take-over-one-kingdom plan that's sure to draw AT LEAST a few sideways glances from other rulers to the lich that came out of the confusion of the economic collapse to take over.

Myshlaevsky
2009-08-18, 05:11 PM
Must...resist...urge...to...reference...RL...on... forums. Ah, there we go. Anyway, after seeing what happened to that kingdom, I'm pretty sure other places would try to keep tabs on that sort of spending for basic amenities, which pretty much keeps that plan from becoming a world domination plan so much as a take-over-one-kingdom plan that's sure to draw AT LEAST a few sideways glances from other rulers to the lich that came out of the confusion of the economic collapse to take over.

Actually, I bet a Lich with decent CHA could convince a few other countries that it was only his emergency plan that got the kingdom back in order and he'll guarantee if they implement his financial plan the same kind of crisis will never happen to them.

Johel
2009-08-18, 05:12 PM
Nothing beats taking over the world with undead.

Then you can sing "I'm so ronery"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh_9QhRzJEs

:smallamused:

Fun in taking over the world is you can be a bastard, act like a bastard and nobody can oppose you. Look at Xykon : that man lich knows what powertrip is all about !!

So, yeah, kill a few people when you need.
But keep more alive to abuse. :smallyuk:


Actually, I bet a Lich with decent CHA could convince a few other countries that it was only his emergency plan that got the kingdom back in order and he'll guarantee if they implement his financial plan the same kind of crisis will never happen to them.

Exactly !! :smalltongue:

Dragon Elite
2009-08-18, 05:28 PM
My plan...

1) Hire an army of 25 or more 1st level fighters.
2) Cast mass bull's strength and mass bear's endurance repeatedly.
3) Attack 5 merchant camps
4) Buy a cloak, boots, and helmet of elven kind.
5) Rob a bank.
6) Rob a museum (only take magic items).
7) Rob multiple magic shops (low level wizards shop's only; only take magic items).
8) Hire a lot of level 1 wizards and fighters.
9) Drain their experience
10) Give the wizards wands of fireball.
11) Take over a small city.
12) Loot.
13) Repeat 8-13

You need to be an undead and Level 14+
Then, you've conquered the world!

Johel
2009-08-18, 05:41 PM
My plan...

1) Hire an army of 25 or more 1st level fighters.
2) Cast mass bull's strength and mass bear's endurance repeatedly.
3) Attack 5 merchant camps
4) Buy a cloak, boots, and helmet of elven kind.
5) Rob a bank.
6) Rob a museum (only take magic items).
7) Rob multiple magic shops (low level wizards shop's only; only take magic items).
8) Hire a lot of level 1 wizards and fighters.
9) Drain their experience
10) Give the wizards wands of fireball.
11) Take over a small city.
12) Loot.
13) Repeat 8-13

You need to be an undead and Level 14+
Then, you've conquered the world!

That's straightforward, at least.

Hints for adventurers :
1)
"-Somebody's in town and is paying well for swordmen !!"
2) & 3)
"-That's right !! Bandits !! With some creepy laughing skeleton dropping fireballs while rapping puppies. Scary bunch... Get all our stuff."
4) & 5) & 6) & 7)
"-A band of savage warriors, led by a wizard, who rob all magical items they can ? Gosh, that's a job for the local heroes."
8) & 9)
"-Lot's of fine lads. They went for that "easy job". Never heard of them again. That's right, Sir !! If I was a hero as famous as you, I'd investigate that !!"
10) & 11) & 12)
"-Well, they ain't robbers anymore. At least, now, we know exactly where to get them !! To war !!"

Point is : if you act in plain sight, you're just going to attract too much attention from people MUCH more stronger than you are. Or maybe only from adventurers a few level weaker than you are but, hey, we all know how it end, don't we ? :smallsmile:

Better not give them a reason to fight you before you are already invincible.

Jalor
2009-08-18, 05:46 PM
Be Asmodeus. Anything else is not optimized.

tiercel
2009-08-18, 05:58 PM
Well... I always liked the "right-hand-man" theory myself too. It's always better to be the power *behind* the throne. (Why do you think the Vizier always has an Evil Goatee/Mustache?)

However, this is *especially* true in heroic FRP settings like D&D. It would seem that the bulk of a FRP world's major problems and threats are solved by heroes. So the single most powerful person to be, is the person who directs those heroes. Be the quest-giver. Sure, the king/queen/whoever may put out a call, may meet with sufficiently advanced heroes in person, but who is the person who finds out about the problem in the first place, chooses which group of heroes to, and tells them what is known about the challenge to be overcome?

Be that guy. (Girl. Thing. Whatever.)

1) Since you are the quest guy, you will get to know the exact capabilities of every adventuring group of significance in the realm. How is that not useful, in case you ever have to face them yourself?

2) Moreover, heroes always want a place to buy/sell magic items. Make it easy for them -- offer to buy or sell pretty much any worthless crap they lug out of dungeons. Half of the heroes will wind up buy the crap other heroes sell to you, netting you a tidy profit while allowing you to have a detailed inventory of heroes' magic arsenals. (See #1 above.) Also, if you are the one selling / giving rewards to heroes, it's that much easier to hand them a magical tracking device and/or failsafe.

3) When there *are* genuine dangers to the whole world/realm, you'll know exactly who best to send. (After all, there's no point in trying to take over a kingdom if a bunch of smelly orcs or undeads or tentacle things from the Far Planes are going to get there first.) When the dangers are more local... well... you can use them to cull the herd. When adventurers get a little uppity, you just send them on a ECL+6 encounter. Maybe even with a ltitle less information than you actually know. Oops.

Given enough time, you can slowly rid the entire realm/world of adventurers, keeping at most one or two groups around to deal with genuine dangers you don't want to have to deal with yourself -- and if they ever start guessing at your role, well, you have a pretty good idea of all their capabilities and equipment and you my even have a nasty surprise amongst their inventory for them.


--------

Or, if you want the obvious short way to an undead rulership, just, you know, control a shadow. (Rebuke undead, control undead, whatever.) Take it into a city. Start spawning from the dregs of the population, and once you have more than a few shadows (hardly takes any time), let them loose, aiming specifically at low-level, low-Strength soft city folk. By time anyone of any level realizes what's going on, you will have thousands of shadows and even a high-level intervention will be hard pressed to undo or even slow down what you have done.

Draz74
2009-08-18, 06:06 PM
http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:Y2jAV3Mkti9nNM:http://www.polyhertz3d.com/gallery/pab/pinkyAndBrain_traced.jpg

You called?

warrl
2009-08-20, 06:11 PM
Zombies. Definite zombies. (http://www.mathstat.uottawa.ca/~rsmith/Zombies.pdf)

EmeraldPhoenix
2009-08-20, 09:01 PM
Take control of all bards, either with a good CHA score or with some mind domination spell.

Have them invade all towns, singing...(Insert Dramatic Music here...) RICK ASTLEY'S "Never Gonna Give You Up"! :smalleek:

When the people start screaming in the streets and the chaos mounts higher, I contact the world's governments an make my demands.:smallamused:

Mua Ha Ha!:smalltongue:

Jergmo
2009-08-20, 09:28 PM
A lich, taking over the world thruogh compound interest.

You give someone a loan. Many, many, many someones.

You wait.

After a few centuries, due to the original terms of the contract, their descendants now owe you the loaned money, plus a few centuries of interest. Hire some thugs, and collect. Those who can't pay can become your indentured slaves until they've worked off the debt.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Hey, look! You own everybody!

So, the Central Banking System, kinda?